Reward Doubled To $100,000 In Woman's '96 Slaying

What's it going to take to solve Nan Toder's murder and convict her killer in a court of law?

If the answer, besides police diligence, is an attention-getting offer of reward money to pry loose the murderer's identity, then the question becomes how much? $25,000? $50,000? $75,000?

What secrets might $100,000 buy?

On Friday, two years after a mysterious intruder abruptly took the 33-year-old Miami woman's life with a crushing blow to the head in a Crestwood motel, her parents, Sol and Linette Toder, accompanied by approving detectives of the Illinois State Police, announced a payout of $100,000 to anyone who can tell them who killed their daughter and why.

State Police Capt. Bill Davis said word of the six-figure reward--among the highest ever offered in Illinois--and an 800-477-8905 hot line number is being circulated throughout the suburbs in thousands of printed fliers and signs posted along the Illinois Tollway.

An aspiring representative for a wholesale floral distributor, Nan Toder was bludgeoned to death on the night of Dec. 12, 1996, minutes after she said goodbye to her Pittsburgh-area parents by phone from her room in the Hampton Inn, 13330 S. Cicero Ave., Crestwood.

She had been staying there while undergoing training at the floral wholesaler Vans Inc. of Alsip.

"There are people out there who know what happened that night," Davis told reporters at a press conference. "We do think we are making progress in our continuing investigation. Money is an incentive to make people come forward."

In doubling the size of the previous $50,000 reward, the Toders said their purpose was not closure for themselves but justice for their daughter. The couple are providing $75,000 of the money, with Vans putting up $25,000.

Meeting with reporters at the State Police Chicago District headquarters, the Toders issued an emotional appeal for information, saying the loss of the youngest of their three daughters, "a completely innocent victim," is an ever present source of grief--"a nightmare that never goes away."

Asked if the capture of the killer would bring closure, Sol Toder, an auto parts executive, replied wearily.

"Only when my wife and I go to our graves," he said. "This will never end until then."

Linette Toder said the couple remain in therapy, "talking mostly with parents like ourselves who have lost children. We share among ourselves."

"The most amazing thing to us," she added, "has been the support of (Nan's) friends, who donated funds and named a room in her memory at the Broward County (Fla.) center for battered women."

The Toders say they are betting that $100,000 accomplishes what has eluded police. The killer of their daughter may still be out there.